At present, no design for a WCDMA receiver for handsets or local area base stations meets the 3GPP TS25.101 standard without an external inter-stage filter between the low-noise amplifier (LNA) and the mixer for Class I through Class VI devices. Conventional designs for WCDMA handset and base station receivers become unattractive in multi-band applications due to numerous external filter requirements and complex ASIC pin-outs. More external components also require additional printed circuit board (PCB) space. In addition, the use of higher external component count reduces flexibility and configurability of the receiver.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved receiver architecture for use in WCDMA handsets and base stations that minimizes the need for external filters. In particular, there is a need for a receiver architecture that minimizes the need for external RF SAW filters.